Behind the large ocher walls of the Belle-de-Mai Media Center, in the 3and district of Marseille, the heart of More beautiful life (PBLV) still beats. At the entrance to the car park, small signs bearing the series logo thank fans for their support and loyalty, and announce that the actors will no longer stop their cars. “due to the context of the health crisis”. But, sheltered by blind facades, the teams that produce the pioneer of French daily soap operas are still busy. “We work, of course, even if the atmosphere is not the same as usual. More beautiful life has always been a big family, but there people are getting even closer”recognizes, between two round trips by car, Rémi Chiarel, “transport captain”, more than ten years of management PBLV at the counter.
On May 5, here, the earth shook. In the small studio, the one where the D team usually shoots (which devotes itself to more intimate sequences, with few actors), France Télévisions and Newen – respectively broadcaster and producer of More beautiful life – came to announce his stop. After eighteen years, the longest adventure of French audiovisual series will end on September 30. The final episode will air on November 18.
“It was predictable, but on the day of the announcement, everyone was disillusioned”recalls Zoé Le Bec, a 28-year-old lighting technician who, like her husband, Félix, a boom operator, has for some years now owed her temporary status to PBLV. “Sounded”, “groggy”, “stunned”… The same words come up repeatedly among the 600 technicians, actors, assistants who take part, over the year, in the production of the five weekly episodes of this family “soap”.
“It has no precedent to stop such an old program”, recognizes Vincent Meslet, Managing Director of Newen France. Program advocating living together, More beautiful life, which revolutionized the production methods of series and ventured into all social issues (transidentity, domestic violence, self-defense, illness), was a precursor in more ways than one. However, in recent years, audiences have eroded, dropping from 7 million viewers in the 2000s to 2.7 million in the 2021-2022 season, according to Médiamétrie. « Cyril Hanouna’s platforms and talk shows [“Touche pas à mon poste”] and Yann Barthes [“Quotidien”] nibbled away at the young audience and the editorial quality of the other three [séries] everyday life has changed the outlook on More beautiful life »analyzes Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, the director of antennas and programs for France Télévisions.
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